Writing For the Smashing Pumpkins

The Smashing Pumpkins are looking for some correspondents to work on their website and asked for a resume and an essay to be submitted. While I did not originally think of submitting anything, I had a brainwave of how I would answer one of the proposed questions and thought it was worthy of submission (or at the very least, worthy of my thoughts being put to print). So here’s what I’ll submit. Most of you won’t even realize what the heck I’m talking about unless you know anything about The Smashing Pumpkins.

In Response to the Question: What kind of album would adore have been if Jimmy Chamberlain had played drums on it?

(Palmer’s Notes for the Wicked: Jimmy Chamberlain was kicked out of the band for drug use during the 1996-97 Mellon Collie World Tour. They subsequently recorded their next album Adore without him, but he returned to the band aftewards.)

To look at what kind of album Adore would have turned out to be if Jimmy Chamberlain would have been involved is to look more than him simply drumming on it, but to see what Jimmy had to offer as a member of the Smashing Pumpkins.

It’s been said before in interviews post-Adore era that when Billy and Jimmy get together, there is a spark that occurs. Billy may have a riff that he’s playing around with but Jimmy will push him to go further with it. He gives Billy a different direction to follow in creating the music.

It is well known (through interviews, documentaries, etc.) that the recording of Adore was a period of extreme stress on the members of the Smashing Pumpkins, but for Billy most of all, considering the loss of his mother at the time, as well as the loss of a crucial member of the band. It probably wasn’t until the band was starting to write songs for Adore that they realized that there was something missing with Jimmy not taking part in the creation process and they struggled through the process.

What would Adore be if Jimmy were part of it? I would think that it would have been a little more rocking. It is hard to theorize on this notion as the band would still have a lot of the same issues facing them even if Jimmy was part of the band at the time; the loss of a loved one, the immense pressure of a follow-up to a successful album…perhaps Adore needed to be less rocking to pave the way for a more dynamic Smashing Pumpkins. You could see that once the album morphed into the live show that the songs were rawer and so much more different that the recorded versions in some cases. I think that ‘Live Adore’ is much better than ‘Recorded Adore’. Perhaps they were trying to recapture a little spark of Jimmy when they thought about how the songs should be in a live setting.

Judging from the songs created around the Pre-Machina (Arising Tour Era), you can tell that Jimmy’s influence made the songs more rocking. The spark was back and the Pumpkins were back in full force once again. Adore would have probably had some of the same introspective songs on it (For Martha for example), but there would be a little more oomph added to the album.

Let’s not forget that Adore would be bad-ass if we heard Mr. Chamberlain’s drumming on the album as well! He is arguably the top drummer in the modern age and his drumming only gets better with time (as seen with the release of Zeitgeist; a welcome change from the standard drumming fare seen in the past decade in alternative circles). Not that there is anything wrong with the session drummers (can Matt Cameron really be referred to as a session drummer? It seems so cruel…) on the album, but we would love to hear the drum fills and bombastic playing of Jimmy on the album.

That being said, I know there have been rumours through the years of some Adore tracks existing with Jimmy playing drums on them. While this may just be a fan boy’s dream (and would still be interesting to hear) I think that Adore would have much different than just having his drumming over all the tracks. They would have been completely different songs in spirit.